Through the years, so many hit songs have slipped through the fingers of the artists that they were intended for and instead recorded by their counterparts. Imagine a world in which TLC sang “…Baby One More Time” or Britney Spears belted “Umbrella”? We can’t either. Check out 13 examples below!
Hit Pop Songs That You’d Be Surprised to Learn Were Intended for Other Artists
![Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé was turned down by Katy Perry and Rihanna](/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pretty-Hurts-by-Beyoncé-was-turned-down-by-Katy-Perry-and-Rihanna.jpg?w=1000&quality=86&strip=all)
![Hit Pop Songs That You’d Be Surprised to Learn Were Intended for Other Artists Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé was turned down by Katy Perry and Rihanna](/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pretty-Hurts-by-Beyoncé-was-turned-down-by-Katy-Perry-and-Rihanna.jpg?w=900&quality=86&strip=all)
Credit: Kobalt Music/Getty Images
Hit Pop Songs That You’d Be Surprised to Learn Were Intended for Other Artists
Through the years, so many hit songs have slipped through the fingers of the artists that they were intended for and instead recorded by their counterparts. Imagine a world in which TLC sang “…Baby One More Time” or Britney Spears belted “Umbrella”? We can’t either. Check out 13 examples below!
In 2002, Christina Aguilera called on Alicia Keys to write a song for her album Stripped. But when Sony Music needed it sooner than Keys anticipated, she quickly offered up “If I Ain’t Got You,” which she had intended to include on her album The Diary of Alicia Keys the following year.
“I told my A&R at the time, ‘Let’s play her ‘If I Ain’t Got You.’ He said, ‘Are you f--king crazy? We’re not giving her that song. Are you out your mind?’ I was like, ‘Why not? I’ll write a hundred more of those, it’s fine. I think she should hear it. I don’t really think it’s a big deal,’” Keys recalled to Stereogum in 2020. “But I thought, ‘Fine, I’ll go write another song.’ So I went off and wrote ‘Impossible.’”
The beginning of Ciara’s career could have been very different, as her debut single, “Goodies,” almost went to Spears in 2004. “Behind-the-scenes, there was a conversation about this song being potentially taken from me and given to an artist like Britney Spears, who was on the same roster as me,” the “1, 2 Step” songstress recalled during a 2020 episode of her Level Up show on Apple Music, adding that she knew “it was a very, very special record.”
Pink penned “Whataya Want From Me” for her 2008 album, Funhouse, but ultimately gave it to Adam Lambert. Though it became the American Idol season 8 runner-up’s biggest hit to date, Pink loved the song so much that she released her own version anyway on an edition of her 2010 greatest hits album.
Spears’ debut single almost went to TLC, but the girl group rejected it over lyrics, which they feared condoned domestic violence. “Was I going to say, ‘Hit me baby one more time?’ Hello no!” Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins told MTV in 2013. Luckily, it was a huge success for Spears in 1998.
Michael Jackson passed on a number of songs for his 1999 album, Invincible, most notably the Neptunes-produced “Rock Your Body,” which ultimately landed on Justin Timberlake’s 2002 solo debut, Justified. In 2020, Pharrell Williams revealed on the “Drink Champs” podcast that “all but one song” on Justified had been intended for the King of Pop. “Cry Me a River,” which Timberlake cowrote about his split from Spears, was the exception.
During Paris Hilton’s short-lived singing career, she almost recorded what would become one of The Pussycat Dolls’ early singles. “I think I did hear the song, but not in the format that we all came to know and love,” the hotel heiress told Digital Spy in 2006. “If I’d heard that, of course I’d have jumped at the chance.”
Rihanna scored her first-ever Grammy in 2007 for “Umbrella,” but she almost didn’t get the song. Songwriter and producer Christopher “Tricky” Stewart told MTV a year later that he originally approached Spears to record the tune for her comeback album, Blackout, but her “current state was a little bizarre” and it didn’t work out.
Williams’ infectious track from the 2013 Despicable Me 2 soundtrack was originally taped by CeeLo Green. “He sounded amazing on it,” the N.E.R.D. vocalist told Howard Stern in 2014. “He burns my version! But … how do I say this diplomatically? The powers that be, at the time, did not see it fit for him.”
Songwriter and producer Max Martin had Pink in mind when he wrote “Since U Been Gone,” but she turned it down. He then offered it to Hilary Duff, only to be rejected again. Kelly Clarkson finally took on the pop-rock anthem for her 2004 album, Breakaway, and even won a Grammy for her rendition.
Gloria Estefan cowrote the 1999 Latin jam for herself, but she eventually decided to give it to Jennifer Lopez, who she thought would have “more fun with it” and put a “new spin” on it. And that she did.
Sia wrote her 2016 ode for Rihanna before recording it herself. “I realized just as soon as I was cutting it that it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for [Rihanna],” Sia told Rolling Stone in 2015. “We actually did send it to her, but they passed on it, and then I just couldn’t stop listening to it in the car.”
Sia’s self-love ballad also ended up in different hands. She emailed it to Katy Perry, who didn’t see the message, before passing it along to Rihanna’s manager, who did not pay the fee to secure the track. Then Beyoncé heard it and put it on her historic 2013 surprise visual album. “She slid into home base and just closed the deal,” Sia told The New York Times in 2014.
Kylie Minogue regretted her decision to pass on Spears’ Grammy-winning 2003 single. “I listened to a snippet of it in the record company offices and decided against it,” Minogue said in 2008. “It’s like the fish that got away. You just have to accept it.”
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